Truth is not enough

As an avid reader and occasional writer, I know that words without context are incomprehensible. Words without context are the ones most often confused and misinterpreted. “Shoot them” makes one kind of sense with a doctor providing medicine shots to a group of people with the same medical need, another to an assassin being encouraged by a partner, and another by someone being told to protect innocents from a murderous attack by terrorists. There are so many contexts that will completely change the meaning and intent of that phrase.

I listen for context when people speak to me about their faith. Are they talking about the God they know personally or only know about. People who know about God can be the cruelest people because they are full of truth that has no love, compassion, and forgiveness. Justice without compassion is abusive. I’ve been hurt by persons who were wrong and others who were right. The context made all the difference with both.

One person cruelly created a disaster in my life that took years to overcome and still has an impact today. However, I later realized that he was doing the best he could with the partial information he had and was intending to help, not harm. His intention was only experienced long after the injury when I learned about what happened, why, and how. I began to heal when I was able to forgive him. My forgiveness did not make his mistake less so. It created a context within which God could work to bring restoration and redemption. The facts without forgiveness would have never made room for healing.

The Ten Commandments are the most powerful rules for teaching right from wrong. They provide a guideline for excellent laws: love God, be accountable and responsible, and care for others. They show a standard of my rights should not keep you from having your rights. Yet, without love, compassion, and forgiveness, these laws can create the worst kind of brutality when people hold others to standards that no one can keep perfectly. Knowledge without the interaction and relationship with a living God can be horrific. Only God, who is superior to His creation, is the only one who can mediate and create the correct context for truth. Men speaking for God often can not. Listen for the truth, and the context. Listen for God.